Why I like the Analogy of the Cave!

I like the Analogy of the Cave because it gives insight into Plato's views on Epistemology and Metaphysics.  Plato's epistemology seems to believe that with effort we can begin to know a form of the truth.  His epistemology seems to lead from his metaphysics that the more you know, you notice that what you thought was truth was just a lesser form of what you know now.  Seemingly since we cannot know everything then would lead to a perfect form.  A form that is not tangible for human knowledge.  These "perfect forms" are the basis of the metaphysics for Plato.

The Atomist

The Atomist, Leucippus and Democritus, seem to build on Eleatic arguments and Anaxagoras by going off of the idea of not coming to be or passing away.  Building on Anaxagoras' "ingredients" that make up everything in the cosmos.  Leucippus and Democritus call these "ingredients" atoms. Atoms cannot be changed, but can be repositioned.  Opposing the atoms are "the void" or "the empty".  The Void is where the atoms are not but the atoms can move through the void.
The amount of knowledge that these two had of physics, even though for the most part it was speculative, amazing me because of how right they were.  With out microscopes to see what was actually happening.  They knew that there was some microscopic object that composed the larger objects.  They also thought of there being space between atoms and with the space the atoms can move.  We now know that atoms are constantly moving.   

Why Flappy BIrds is a game everyone should play once.

I want to start this blog by saying this has very little to do with any thing we are talking about in class but it does have a point about how we should live which is the one of the basic elements to philosophy so I thought I should share.  It all started when I was with a friend trying to do homework, and not getting any of it done because of this game and the fact that my procrastination level is off the charts, but my friend was playing this game and she said the one thing that angered her the most was that the bird flew so majestic until you started the game.  And later after I was playing the game, what she said got me thinking.  Looking around Baylor I see all these people who look as if they are flying through life, even though I know probably they are struggling to get through the pipes just as I am, but they seem to be just as majestic going through life as the bird is before the game starts and it makes me want to be majestic in life and come up with crazy ideas like learning three languages because I see my friends talking in fluent Spanish to which I only catch parts and pieces of and then stop turn to me and without pause speak perfect English to catch me up on what I miss.  But once life starts, I and most like myself fall flat on our faces over and over again but just like in the game we restart only to frustrate ourselves and ask serious questions like "what am I doing with my life" a question that has caused me to change my major once and my minor twice of course I would never leave the sanctuary that is the business minor. But through these frustrations our lives begin to unfold and we figure out what to do with the rest of our lives.  And maybe when we leave Baylor with our diplomas we will have become the majestic bird.

Zeno of Elea

Views
things are not many: All is One - the view of Parmenides
Zeno's work the Treatise is a defense of Parmenides' work.
Zeno works with paradoxes to defend Parmenides belief that plurality is false and all things are one.
His paradoxes of Achilles, my favorite because it reminds me of the tortoise and the hare and if I understand it right, states that Achilles will never catch the tortoise even though Achilles is faster the tortoise because the tortoise is still moving. So if the tortoise starts 100 meters in front of Achilles and it takes 10 seconds for Achilles to move those 100 meters he would not have caught the tortoise because it would have moved from his spot, lets say the tortoise moved 10 meters. Then Achilles runs the 10 meters in 1 second but the tortoise moved a meter in that second and so on.  In my opinion the paradox is like the commercial from a couple years ago that had a guy talking then at the end he says it makes sense if you do not think about it, that's how I look at this paradox  So either I missed the point or it just did not make sense because no matter how you look at it Achilles would catch up to the tortoise, mathematically or in real life.  Any time two people are running and one is faster than the other, the faster will over take the slower, unless the faster person gives up before that time has occurred.  And if I were Achilles, I would have probably given up after 100 meters.

Parmenides

Parmenides was born Elea, a small town on the west coast of Italy, in 515 BCE. He was a student of Xenophanes but did not except his ideas, though Xenophanes' influence can be seen in his work.  He believed that the only truth is through senses.  He believed that the "beliefs of mortals" was not to be trusted and only what is will forever be.  And was is-not is unthinkable.  Therefore genuine thought can only be about what it.
Using the Homeric Hexameter and writing in prose brings the reader into the story, more intriguing to read on for the average man versus normal philosophical writings in my own opinion which if a person wanted to change a society, shouldn't you start at the average man?
So the goddess Night tells him "all things" but stresses that he must test everything that is said. And that is the basis of the story minus a chariot ride and meeting some other divine beings.
One thing that really got me thinking was how true he was when he says that what is will always be.  Justice will always be doing what is right.  And what is right will never change.  One person cannot change justice to meet his needs: though some mere mortals have tried eventually time and the hatred of injustice of others catches up to them and Justice prevails.  So why fight for what is unjust when you can not change what is.